Boy Parts

Eliza Clark wrote a story about a character you may not like and you definitely may not understand - but yet, you have to keep reading! We observe Irina, a young woman working in a bar every night, while in her free time she seeks ordinary-looking men from the streets and compulsively takes obscene and specific photos of them, hoping she might get far with her art. As we get introduced to the prominent parts of her life, we fall into a spiral of greed, power and unreliability. I was hooked from the beginning, even though I could barely relate to the protagonist - I felt so close and so distanced at the same time. It's a good look at the female gaze and of what can happen when the men stand in the spotlight of objectification. Sharp, brutal and funny too!

As someone who barely dragged herself through Ellis's American Psycho, I was hesitant about this book, but i'm so glad I gave it a try! Clark's female Bateman goes by the name of Irina, and I found myself more and more drawn to her with every page. Reading this felt like witnessing an intoxicating downspiral of a character that is by no means considered Good, but intriguing all the same. Nevermind the comparisons to a classic that is in my opinion overrated, Eliza Clark promises something here and actually delivers it! And come again? This is a DEBUT NOVEL?

at first, i found it quite disappointing, but i think that's only because i just finished 'a certain hunger' which was completely unhinged and the writing style was a bit more up my alley. i also hated the modernism/modern culture references. but about half-way through, i got drawn in by the unreliable unlikeable narrator and the ending was brilliant. the book is dark, violent and has great social commentary on gender issues and power dynamics

I didn't like this as much as I expected to like it, as a connaiseur in female rage/girlfailure lit. I liked the general idea of translating the age old ''tortured selfish artist" trope into a modern setting. The first 30% were really enticing to me too. But after that, the book relies almost exclusively on shock value and repetitive acts of violence with similar repetitive motifs. (Seriously, the aforementioned MYORAR had more going on despite the narrator being knocked out on fictional benzos the entire time.) Thought loops arent unusual for a heavily mentally ill person tbf, but it gets uninteresting to read after a certain time, I think it wouldve been better to force a little change of pace by making Irina actually experience a crumb of consequence for her actions - which brings me to my last criticism. Irina gets away with EVERYTHING, she brutalizes 3 guys (or 4, I'm not sure if one was actually brutalized or Irina was under psychosis) and all of them just kinda agree to let it slide. Would've made the novel more interesting IMO if there was a bit of external struggle.